A federal judge has awarded Argus Leader Media nearly $70,000 in attorney fees after finding the newspaper “substantially prevailed” in a lawsuit against the United States Department of Agriculture.

The award comes after Argus Leader Media won a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the department last year. The newspaper sued the department in 2011 after the department refused to turn over five years of sales data for every business in the country that participates in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps.

Following the victory, the Food Marketing Institute intervened in the case, appealing the decision to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeal is pending.

The award was less than the newspaper sought. Still, in awarding fees, Schreier noted that the information sought by the paper served a public benefit as opposed to a private benefit to Argus Leader Media.

“Although Argus may derive some commercial benefit from publishing SNAP sales data, the primary purpose of publishing such data is to inform the public how and where government resources are being used,” she wrote. “Argus is not using its FOIA request to further a private interest in a dispute with the government. Instead, Argus submitted its FOIA request to obtain information to share with the public.”

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